It’s been clear ever since William Fichtner was cast as Shredder that Jonathan Liebesman‘s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot would take some liberties with the character’s history. For one thing, Shredder has been portrayed as Japanese in the past, but Fichtner’s take obviously won’t be.

And that’s not the only thing that’s changed. “I can tell you that who Shredder is in the telling of this Turtles is unlike any telling of the story before,” he said. Hit the jump to read his comments on his character, and his possible appearance in the sequels.

As we reported back in July, Fichtner’s Shredder is a man named “Eric Sachs” — an apparent Westernization of “Oroku Saki,” Shredder’s real name in other TMNT properties. While chatting with Flicks and the City (via Coming Soon), Fichtner dropped a few more hints about Sachs’ history with the Turtles.

Well I play a guy named Eric Sachs and we find out that Eric Sachs is somebody else too. I can’t give away too much in the story but I can tell you that who Shredder is in the telling of this Turtles is unlike any telling of the story before. His connection and relationship to the turtles is a bit surprising and for an actor playing it, the backstory, which comes out in this film, is really intriguing… We made some changes while filming that I thought are just awesome.

In addition to the changes to Shredder, Fichtner reveals that the movie as a whole will have a different feel.

It always had sort of a bouncy cartoon feel to me, which is great, that’s why it was appealing. That’s not this movie… It’s not like any Mutant Ninja Turtles thing you’ve ever seen before. It’s freaky, they’re cool, and they’re mutants and they look awesome. It’s tough and it’s going to be really, really great.

Still, in some ways, Fichtner’s Shredder won’t be that different from previous iterations. For example, “Shredder dons himself with armor, and that’s who he is and that happens in this story,” Fichtner said. “It’s the backstory on how it all began with the turtles, that the character of Eric Sachs… It’s not by chance that he knows the Turtles.”

Whatever this Shredder’s story is, let’s hope it’s a good one, because the character seems likely to stick around. “I think you’re going to see a few [sequels],” he said. “I signed a three picture thing, so I’ll see what happens.”